Fugitive prison guard Vicky White has died at hospital from self-inflicted gunshot wounds hours after being captured by law enforcement officers with escaped Alabama inmate Casey White, officials have confirmed.
Ms White was taken to hospital after the nationwide manhunt for the pair came to a dramatic end with a car crash near Evansville, Indiana, on Monday afternoon.
Vanderburgh County Coroner, Steven W Lockyear, announced that the 56-year-old corrections officer had died at Evansville Deaconess Midtown Hospital on Monday night, reported WHNT.
An autopsy for her will be carried out on Tuesday.
Earlier, Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding told reporters at the scene of the arrest that Ms White’s injuries were “very serious” and described her as being in “pretty serious shape”.
The apprehension came after a Cadillac car Ms White was driving was rammed by Marshals to end the pursuit.
“The male and female fled in a vehicle on Highway 41 northbound, went past Highway 57 as you can see they turned here on Birch Park Drive, they came through this grassy area,” Sheriff Wedding explained.
“The Marshals task force intercepted them, actually collided with them to try to end the pursuit.”
And he added: “Two bad people are off the streets.”
The sheriff said the couple appear to have been in Indiana for six days before their capture.
“It’s hard to believe they were here that many days. They’re criminals, sometimes they do things that are inexplicable, but I’m glad they did,” he said.
The sheriff added that Casey White’s massive stature helped in his capture. “In this case, one of the suspects being 6ft 9, that’s good for us,” he said.
The arrest came 11 days into the nationwide manhunt for the pair, after Ms White walked a shackled Casey White out of jail and they disappeared.
“We got a dangerous man off the street today,” Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton told AL.com following the Monday afternoon capture.
No law enforcement officers fired their weapons during the capture of the inmate and the prison guard, according to US Marshals Service.
Sheriff Singleton said that following the chase Casey White, 38, had surrendered peacefully to law enforcement.
“This has ended a very long and stressful and challenging week and a half,” added the sheriff.
“It ended the way we knew it would – with them in custody. He is never going to see the light of day again and that’s a good thing, not just for our community but that’s a good thing for this country.”
Their capture came after investigators received a tip on the couple’s location late on Sunday night, and tracked them to a hotel in the state, from which they fled. The sheriff said they do not know why the couple ended up in Indiana.
Witness Cory Bradley told CNN he was driving on Highway 41 in Evansville, Indiana, when more than a dozen police cars flew past him.
“It scared the life out of me when they came flying by,” Mr Bradley told the news network.
“A little bit up the road, we were in stand-still traffic, and that’s when I heard what was going on and took the video as I went by. I kept it moving. I thought about pulling over since it’s a national story. We don’t get a lot of action like that around here,” Mr Bradley said.
Casey White is now charged with escape, and before her death Ms White had been charged with permitting/aiding an escape, identity theft and second-degree forgery.
Last week, authorities released images of how Ms White would look if she changed her blonde hair to a darker colour or shorter cut.
They also released pictures of Casey White’s distinctive tattoos.
The “subjects should be considered dangerous and may be armed with an AR-15 rifle, handguns and a shotgun,” the agency had said.
The Marshals Service says that in 2015 Casey White threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend and her sister, and said he wanted to be killed by police.
He was being held in Lauderdale County jail awaiting trial on capital murder charges against him, and was already serving a 75-year sentence for crimes committed in 2015. The pair left the Lauderdale County Detention Center on 29 April, with officials saying that they may have had a romantic relationship before going on the run.
Last Friday the car they had left Alabama in was found abandoned in Tennessee.
On the Monday before the capture, Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office said the charges against Ms White for identity theft and forgery related to her use of an alias to buy a getaway car that was used “to facilitate the escape”.
